Re: [PATCH] Add a comment briefly explaining partial symbols

[Simon Marchi <simark@simark.ca>]

On 2019-07-31 6:12 p.m., Christian Biesinger via gdb-patches wrote:
> Based on an explanation by tromey on IRC.
> 
> gdb/ChangeLog:
> 
> 2019-07-31  Christian Biesinger  <cbiesinger@google.com>
> 
> 	* objfiles.h (objfile): Add a comment describing partial symbols.
> ---
>  gdb/objfiles.h | 8 +++++++-
>  1 file changed, 7 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)
> 
> diff --git a/gdb/objfiles.h b/gdb/objfiles.h
> index a0c106be3d..c7e0be1955 100644
> --- a/gdb/objfiles.h
> +++ b/gdb/objfiles.h
> @@ -382,7 +382,13 @@ private:
>     2.  Additional symbol files added by the add-symbol-file command,
>     3.  Shared library objfiles, added by ADD_SOLIB,  4.  symbol files
>     for modules that were loaded when GDB attached to a remote system
> -   (see remote-vx.c).  */
> +   (see remote-vx.c).
> +   
> +   GDB typically reads symbols twice -- first an initial scan which just
> +   reads "partial symbols"; these are partial information for the
> +   static/global symbols in a symbol file.  When later looking up symbols,
> +   objfile->sf->qf->lookup_symbol is used to check if we only have a partial
> +   symbol and if so, read and expand the full compunit.  */
>  
>  struct objfile
>  {
> 

Hi Christian,

Thanks, that LGTM.  But please wait a few days before pushing to see if others have things to add.

Simon